And he said, This is really good. He sounded just like Tom Petty when he said it. And I thought, Okay well, youre being paid like its main gig. I had a feeling that the dough was the only reason he hadnt walked off yet.. When hes telling the story about how his father beat the shit out of him at age five, its hard not to feel something., I cant pretend to know everything that was going through his mind in telling me these things, Zanes added. Ive warmed them up for you. He looked at me and goes, I bet you did, with those twinkly eyes and that beautiful face. They hugged; a photo was taken. The next incarnation. Even though Tom Petty's . Original Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch recently joined an interview with Rolling Stone. Then, on February 10th, 2017, Petty was honored by MusiCares, the musicians health-care charity, as their Person of the Year at a dinner and tribute show. He didnt settle for just being OK., Petty entered the last year of his life with confidence and pride. But they loved the same stuff ukuleles, motor racing. I just learn from them., Campbell feels the same way. And I think among American rock-and-roll bands, theyre the very best. We want to hear it. He admitted acting wrong and didnt communicate with his bandmates properly. Jimmy Iovine dissing Stan Lynch for being behind the beat Petty then eventually felt that it wouldnt be a good idea for Lynch to perform on his next solo album, Wildflowers, so he hired session musician Steve Ferrone instead. He beat the living hell out of me.. That Time Tom Petty Toured The Western Wall - The Forward Their father, Earl, was Jerry Lee Lewis if he didnt play the piano. Ive known him since I was 15. Warren himself had been a Tom Petty fan since he was eleven, when he heard Breakdown on WBCN in Boston. He formed the band known as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1976 along with Stan Lynch (drummer), Benmont Tech (keyboardist), Mike Campbell, . He never wanted to be the band's lead singer. And he sang as well. I was doing my job but struggling to keep my vibe up. One night, in the middle of a song, Petty came over to Campbell, stood next to me, and he goes, Just remember, up here, nobody can touch us., Springsteen calls it the debt the chance, if it comes, to honor a pivotal teacher and repay that gift of inspiration. I like to think that Pettys demise, which will draw a perhaps never-to-be-reopened shade across part of my consciousness,will only serve to enhance his stature. In Pettys interviews with Zanes, he was as forthright and honest as he is in his songs, talking about his abusive father, his failed marriage, and his heroin use. But he was a very good drummer and he was really conscientious, and he worked really hard. We connected instantly, like wed known each other already, the guitarist says. It also fucks with the legacy. And then, with awful suddenness and scant days after a triumphant home stand in his adoptive Los Angeles for a 40th anniversary concert, he was gone. I'm Bihter. As you may recall, the lead singer and guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty sadly passed away on October 2, 2017, at the age of 66. ', One night, they started warming up backstage by singing Stories We Could Tell, an obscure John Sebastianpenned song that Petty and the Heartbreakers often played in their early days. Id watch him coming down from the stage. Just a week before his death, Tom Petty completed which . Petty was our guy. His last gig with the Heartbreakers was on October 2, 1994, at the Bridge School Benefit Concert in Mountain View, California. [1], Lynch was born in Cincinnati,[2] Ohio, U.S., and moved to Gainesville, Florida, in the early 1960s. I was just trying to do the best job I could. Still, Petty confirmed with relish a story about a meeting to renegotiate a contract during which he pulled a switchblade knife out of his boot and started cleaning his fingernails. Id never learned anyone elses parts., He started going over the material at his home studio, and he turned to longtime drummer buddies Kenny Aronoff and Gregg Bissonette for advice. Petty spent the downtime recording his . His perfectionism sometimes ran him and band both ragged, but he never let us see him sweat in public, even during the energetic if happily quirky stage shows, for which he(a great interpreter and helpmate to Bob Dylan and the Byrds)would be reliably garbed in the post-Rolling Thunder gear that would run to stovepipe hats and undertakers long coats. It wasnt the best period in my life, Petty confessed in 2006. Lynch has this down pat in bushels full. Were not going to do any more long tours like this, but we have a lot of stuff were gonna do, because this is the best the band has ever been., When he walked past me, Campbell continues, I put my arm out, I pulled him close to me and said, Im so proud of you. Former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch recalled working with Stevie Nicks in a July 2021 interview. I dont believe the good times are all overI dont believe the thrill is all goneReal love is a mans salvationThe weak grow strongThe strong carry on. Stan Lynch Has Tons Of Regrets About Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers Petty spent much of his stardom in ready, grateful service to his rock & roll elders. Zanes also coaxed Stan Lynch, the ex-drummer of Petty's longtime backing band, The Heartbreakers, to talk unflinchingly about his falling-out with Petty. He began playing music as a small child. They were cool with it right away. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Blair and original drummer Stan Lynch, both from Gainesville released their self-titled debut album in November 1976, then hit the road in earnest. The cause of his death later revealed as multisystem organ failure due to mixed drug toxicity. The story behind Refugee by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - loudersound Lynch started to work with various Florida bands, among them Styrophoam Soule and Road Turkey, and when he was 15 he met Ron Blair, who was six years older than Lynch. Thats how, in a very roundabout way, Warren Zanes, a deputy professor at New York University, came to write Petty: The Biography, a new book about one of rocks most enigmatic figures, and his band, the Heartbreakers. A totally different sound, yet completely him., Zanes enrolled in Loyola and spent the next twelve years in universities, eventually getting a Ph.D. from Rochester University in Cultural Studies. Stan had never heard me sing before, and he was the main harmony singer with Tom. Instruments. I got the phone call and told the folks in my house, Bruce Springsteen says, recalling the sudden, shocking impact of that news. The tension that followed played a significant role in his ultimate departure from the band. Flip and entertaining as he could be, the essential Petty to me was the darker-hued poet of Even the Losers, The Waiting, Deliver Me, and Southern Accents as they spilled out over the next decade. What people dont know is that Lynch and Pettys conflict started way back at the time of their legendary singles. Lets do some more. Stan Lynch - Wikipedia The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History Petty later got a solo deal with Shelter but turned to Campbell and Tench again to form a band with Pettys name up front, playing his songs. This was unsettling for everyone in the group besides Campbell, who worked extensively on the album, but Lynch voiced his objections the loudest. Petty was found unconscious at his home. Tom Petty's daughter shares pictures from private funeral - Today (Caroline Greyshock / Los Angeles Times) Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. The Fleetwood Mac singer attributes his uncanny ability to write for and about women the scrappy fighters in that song and 1978s Listen to Her Heart; the restless dreamer in American Girl; the romantic ideal in Wildflowers to the really strong women around Petty: his first wife, Jane; their two daughters, Adria and AnnaKim; and his second wife, Dana, whom he married in 2001. There will be a time and place to talk about the music as I was doing with a longtime colleague from Rolling Stone days for a long stretch of a Sunday hike on what I could not have known was the last full day of Tom Pettys life but each Petty fan has their personal stash. Tom Petty fired Stan Lynch It's safe to say Lynch's dismissal from the Heartbreakers wasn't a mutual decision. In 2022, Lynch accepted an invitation from Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell to fill in for drummer Matt Laug for several shows on tour with Campbell's band The Dirty Knobs. Petty gave him complete editorial freedom, and told him that he could interview whomever he liked, because thats how Tom Petty does things. Pettys only condition was that he get to read the completed manuscript and be given the opportunity to respond to anything he felt needed it. Lynch stated he would be open to playing with the other three original members of The Heartbreakers in the future. At one point, he said, Warren, Im going to have to answer questions about this for the rest of my life. And I said, I know.. He may have fallen, leaving us to try to grow strong without him. When we got back together for the Bridge School Benefit it was just misery. Propelled by Stan Lynch's rollicking drumming and the band's now-signature soaring guitars, this high-octane rave was a close-up of Petty's vocal prowess and persona: sweet then sour . Walking like Tom Petty walks. When original Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch was let go from the group in 1995 or excommunicated, to use his own term he started a new chapter of his life in Florida as a producer-songwriter and rarely looked back. George put it on his jukebox, Dhani says, and just had it on repeat., Earlier this year, Dhani stopped by Pettys house to play him some new music: Dhanis first solo album, IN///PARALLEL. ', But when he went to speak, he found himself tentatively agreeing to the plan. Stan was actually fired because of Iovine during Damn the Torpedoes. It was a short walk, 20 steps, from his front door to his studio, Dimitriades says. There was a lot of miscommunication and a lot of immature shit going down. They preferred the punkier numbers, like Even the Losers and Refugee, to the Byrds-ier T.P. Otherwise, I listened to what I already had.. Its so bare, without any ambiguity. I was lucky enough to know him a bit over the decades; it was a kind of (again) professional association with benefits. Six days later, on the evening of October 1st, Petty suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, and was rushed to UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica. I didnt know whether to say, Thank you or Fuck you. I only knew I was grateful to have had the experience of having all those men in my life. Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. But the times I was designated to tag along on a couple later tours for magazine profiles, he was always welcoming, inclusive, ready with a quip that came from his slightly mysterious but usually winning vein of humor. What It Was Like Writing Tom Petty's Life Story Pettys dark side manifested at times in an explosive temper; more often channeled into a willingness to wage all-out war with the music business over his integrity and just reward was a running parallel drama to his success.